Foot-guard.



R. D. GULTER.

FOOT GUARD.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. s, 1909.

949,649, Patented Feb. 15, 1910.

|llllllllllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIW WINNIE lill lllllll W nTl'NTTEfi STATES PATENT @FFTQE.

RICHARD D. GULTER, OF EAST TAWAS, MICHIGAN.

FOOT-GUARD.

oaaeio.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, RICHARD D. CUL'rnR, a citizen of the United States,residing at East Tawas, in the county of Iosco and State of Michigan,have invented new and useful Improvrnnents in Foot-Guards, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in foot guards to be attached tothe rear edges or heads of shovels to form a foot rest for the shovelerand enable him to use the shovel without injury to his foot or shoe, anobject of the invention being to provide a device of this characterwhich is extremely cheap and simple, is small and compact so that it maybe readily carried in a pocket and which may be readily attached to anddetached from a shovel as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure l is a front elevation of a shovelprovided with my foot guard. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view ofthe same on the plane indicated by the line c-a of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is aninverted plan view of my improved foot guard on a greater scale. Fig. 4tis a side elevation of the same.

My improved foot guard may be made of iron, steel or any other suitablematerial and preferably is a casting, although it may be forged. Thebody 1 of my improved foot guard is of suitable length to enable it toextend from one side of the shovel handle nearly to one side of theshovel. and is of suitable width and thickness and is curvedlongitudinally to adapt it to conform to the shape of the inner end,edge or head of the shovel and is provided at its outer end on its upperside with a stop stud 2 to bear against the outer edge of the shoe soleof the shoveler and prevent his foot from slipping from said guard. Theinner end of the body of the guard is concaved or recessed as at 8 toadapt it to fit against the inner end of the handle of the shovel. Onthe under side of the guard and preferably formed integral therewith arestuds 4, 5 which are at suitable distances from the ends of the guardand are split from their lower ends to the point where they join thebody of the guard, that is to say, each of the said studs is divided asby a kerf 6 so that the upper end or edge of the shovel may be placed insaid kerfs of the divided studs and hence the latter are adapted to bearboth on the front and rear Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 3, 1909.

Patented Feb. 15, 1910.

Serial No. 481,087.

sides of the shovel. At the inner end of the guard on the under sidethereof is a downwardly extending substantially conical look stud 7which tapers toward its lower end and when the guard is placed on theshovel, the said lock stud, owing to its tapered form, is forceddownwardly against the front of the eye of the shovel and coacts wit-hthe split or divided studs a, 5 to firmly lock the guard to the shovelas will be understood. In order to detach the guard from the shove-l, itis only necessary to strike a few blows on the under side of the guardas with a hammer, stone or other object.

It will be understood from the foregoing,

that the guard may be very readily attached to or detached from ashovel, owing to the coaction of the divided or split studs and thedownwardly tapering locking stud. The pressure of the foot of theshoveler on the foot guard causes the latter to be firmly wedged andlocked on the rear edge of the head of the shovel and it will also beunderstood that the foot guard is light, simple, cheap ancPcomp-act andmay be, when not in use on the shovel, very readily placed in a pocket.

Having thus fully described the invention, what is claimed as new, is

1. A foo-t guard for application to the head or upper edge of a shoveland comprising a body portion, downwardly extending split studs toreceive the upper portion of the shovel blade bet-ween them and aclownwardly tapered locking stud to bear on one side of the shovel andcoact with said splitstuds to exert wedge action and lock the foot guardin place.

2. A foot guard for application to the head or upper edge of a shoveland comprising a body portion having a stop stud on its upper side atits outer end and provided on its under side with divided studs to receive the upper portion of the shovel blade between them and also with adownwardly tapered locking stud to bear against one side of the shoveland coact with said divided studs to exert wedge action and lock saidfoot guard in place.

I11 testimony whereof I afIiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

RICHARD D. CULTER. lVitnesses BYRON H. OLos, J. R. MCHARG.

